


Ersatzvati

by hugoslavia



Category: Original Work
Genre: Brother Feels, Brotherly Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 02:52:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10504917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hugoslavia/pseuds/hugoslavia
Summary: Context is for the weak.





	

Most of the kids in his class shared a room with their siblings.  That wasn’t weird at all.

What he suddenly realized was that none of them ever talked about sharing a _bed_ with their siblings.  And it was because they didn’t.  Ten year-olds didn’t share beds with their older brothers.  That was _weird.  Really weird._

He and his brother shared a room, too, just like the other kids in school.  They’d moved on from bunk beds to actual beds, two crammed into the corners of the tiny room, because his brother had kept banging his head on the ceiling when he woke up in the morning.  He slept about three steps away from his brother now.  But sometimes at night he got so scared and sad and lonely and the apartment was so quiet with just him and his brother and Mom that three steps felt too much.  Three steps felt too _scary._

His hand would find his brother's shoulder and carefully shake it, the worn fabric of the shirt his brother slept in already comforting.  “Can I—”

“Mmmmm.”  And his brother, sometimes still half asleep, would wiggle over and flatten himself against the wall to make space.  His brother’s legs were so long that the bed was always warm past the point where his own feet stopped.

Sometimes he thought of Dad and how Dad had left and didn’t visit much and it wasn’t fair and he had never wanted that and it made him cry.  He didn’t think his friends cried.  He never saw them cry.  What was wrong with _him_?

But if he cried in his brother's bed he forgot to worry about all that.  “Hey, hey, stop,” his brother would say.  “ _I’m_ right here, okay?

And he would keep blubbering like a baby.

“ _I_ didn’t go anywhere.”  His brother never minded when he wiggled his way underneath his armpit.  And _he_ didn’t mind if it was sweaty.  “If you get your boogers on my shirt again—”

He'd giggle even though he was still teary.  “How do I know?  Do you promise?”

“I do promise.”  And his brother would prop himself up on his elbow and stare into his eyes.  He was never impatient, even though he’d said the same thing over and over so many times by now.  “I’m _never_ gonna leave you, never.  Okay?  I’ll be right here with you for my whole life.”

And he would throw his arms around his brother’s ribs, his worries and sadness starting to go away.  Only his brother could make that happen.

Sometimes he’d hear it, said so softly it was almost like his brother didn’t want him to hear.  _I love you._


End file.
